Sarasota-Manatee Housing Market Continues to Cool in September

The latest data for the Sarasota and Manatee housing market continues to follow the same trend of fewer sales and rising inventory in September, alongside a few closing delays caused by Hurricane Ian’s arrival at the end of the month. According to the data from Florida REALTORS®, the median prices for both Sarasota County and Manatee County continue to show year-over-year increases but are not as high as prices recorded earlier this year.

The total number of closed sales across the region was 1,263 in September, a 39 percent decrease from last year. When compared to August of 2022, closed sales for both property types in the two-county region decreased by 29.6 percent.

Closed sales for single-family homes in Manatee County decreased year-over-year by 37.5 percent to 422 sales and in Sarasota County, single-family sales decreased by 45.1 percent to 458 sales. For condos, Manatee closed sales decreased by 35.9 percent to 148 sales, and Sarasota sales decreased by 29 percent to 235 sales.

“We are continuing the trend that we’ve seen for several months now where the number of closed sales is dropping, and prices are leveling off,” said 2022 President of the REALTOR® Association of Sarasota and Manatee Tony Veldkamp, a Senior Advisor at SVN Commercial Advisory Group. “Inventory has also leveled off; sellers seem to have a ‘wait and see’ attitude regarding the economy. Prices continue to be very strong, but inventory has not increased significantly, which means that it is still a great time to sell.”

For single-family homes, the median sale price in Manatee County increased year-over-year by 20.3 percent to $517,193 and in Sarasota County, the median price increased by 22.2 percent to $497,275. The median sale price for condos in Manatee County increased by 18.2 percent to $337,000. The price for Sarasota condos is now $399,999, a 23.1 percent increase from last year.

“Historically whenever Florida has a catastrophic event like Hurricane Ian, the real estate market bounces back very quickly with strong growth. However, with the higher interest rates and rising inflation, this time may be different. Those factors may cause our market to continue to remain level with less of a bounce towards higher values,” added Veldkamp. “And while September data is on trend with the current market, it’s possible that Hurricane Ian may have contributed to fewer closed sales and fewer new listings this month. Since the storm arrived toward the end of September, many sales that were set to close before month end were either pushed back to October or canceled altogether.”

In the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton MSA, new listings decreased year-over-year by 22 percent to 1,225 new listings for single-family homes, while new listings in the condo market decreased by 25.3 percent to 469 new listings.

The months’ supply of inventory has more than doubled from last year. In the single-family home market, the months’ supply in Manatee County increased by 237.5 percent to a 2.7-month supply. In Sarasota, single-family supply increased by 162.5 percent to a 2.1-month supply. Manatee County’s condo supply increased year-over-year by 216.7 percent to 1.9-months, while Sarasota’s condo supply increased by 166.7 percent to 1.6-months.

At the end of September, there were 4,346 active listings reported across the two counties, a 132.4 percent increase from last year. For single-family homes, active listings increased by 106.4 percent in Sarasota County and by 187.9 percent in Manatee County. For condos, the active inventory in Sarasota increased by 85.4 percent, while the inventory in Manatee increased by 146.1 percent.

The median time from listing date to contract date has been increasing since June of this year. The median time it took for single-family homes to go under contract was 20 days in Sarasota County and 19 days in Manatee County. As for condos, the median time to contract was 18 days in Sarasota and 15 days in Manatee.

Monthly reports are provided by Florida REALTORS® with data compiled from Stellar MLS. For comprehensive statistics dating back to 2005, visit www.MyRASM.com/statistics.